| dbpprop:abstract
|
- The Aśvakas or Aśvakayanas, classically called the Assacenii/Assacani, is the Sanskrit name of a people who supposedly lived in northeastern Afghanistan and the Peshawar Valley. They are/were believed to be a sub-group of the Greater Kamboja tribe profusely referenced in ancient Sanskrit/Pali literature and were partitioned into eastern and western Aśvakas The History and Culture of the Indian People, 1968, p 49, Dr Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bhāratīya Itihāsa Samiti - India; Hindu Civilization; 1936, p 283, Dr Radhakumud Mookerji - Civilization; Great Men of India, 1939, p 15, L. F. Rushbrook Williams. </ref>. They find mention in the Puranas, Mahabharata and numerous other ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts. Today, their descendants are mostly heterogeneous people. The Sanskrit term aśva, Iranian aspa and Prakrit assa means horse. The name Aśvaka/Aśvakan or Assaka is said to be derived from Sanskrit Aśva or Prakrit Assa and it literally denotes someone connected with the horses---hence: a horseman, or a cavalryman Ethnic Settlements in Ancient India, 1955, p 51, Dr Sashi Bhusan Chaudhuri; Histoire du bouddhisme indien, 1967, p 110, Etienne Lamotte; East and West: A quarterly review for the study of missions, 1950, p 28, Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente; The Ancient Geography of India: By Alexander Cunningham, 1975, p xvi, Alexander Cunningham; History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era, 1988, p 100, Etienne Lamotte, Sara Webb-Boin; The Indian Historical Quarterly, 1925, p 104, India; Cf: The History and Culture of the Indian People, 1977, p 45, Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Achut Dattatrya Pusalker, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, A. K. Majumdar, Dilip Kumar Ghose, Vishvanath Govind Dighe. </ref> or "breeder of horses" Encyclopedia of Religions Or Faiths of Man Part 1: V. 1, 2003, p 555, J. G. R. Forlong; History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era, 1988, p 105, Etienne Lamotte, Sara Webb-Boin - History. </ref>. The Aśvakas were especially engaged in the occupation of breeding, raising and training war horses, as also in providing expert cavalry services to outside nations, hence they also constituted an excellent class of Kshatriyas. Like tribal term Kamboja, the tribal term Aśvaka is also interpreted as "land or home of horses"'. Panini has styled the Aspa and the Aśvaka clans of the Kunar and Swat valleys Hindu Civilization, 1936, p 283, Dr Radhakumud Mookerji - Civilization; Sīmevarūna parata jā!: Tīna aṅkī aitihāsika naṭaka, 1963, Bāḷa Kolhaṭakara, Balkrishna Hari Kolhatkar. </ref> as Aśvayanas and Aśvakayanas respectively . The Classical writers use the respective equivalents Aspasioi or Aspasii (Hippasii) and Assakenoi (or Assaceni/Assacani). Based on evidence from Indika of Megasthenes (c. 350 BC-290 BC), Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus) (23 AD–79 AD) refers to clans like Osii (Asii), Asoi, and Aseni in his Historia Naturalis Pliny: Historia Naturalis, VI.21.8-23.11. </ref>List of Indian races: "Then next to these towards the Indus come, in an order which is easy to follow, the Amatae, Bolingae, Gallitalutae, Dimuri, Megari, Ordabae, Mese; after these the Uri and Sileni. Immediately beyond come deserts extending for 250 miles. These being passed, we come to the Organagae, Abaortae, Sibarae, Suertae, and after these to deserts as extensive as the former. Then come the Sarophages, Sorgae, Baraomatae, and the Umbrittae, who consist of twelve tribes, each possessing two cities, and the Aseni, who possess three cities. Their capital is Bucephala, built where Alexander's famous horse of that name was buried. Hillmen follow next, inhabiting the base of Caucasus (Hindukush), the Soleadae, and the Sondrae; and if we cross to the other side of the Indus and follow its course downward we meet the Samarabriae, Sambruceni, Bisambritae, Osii, Antixeni, and the Taxillae with a famous city. Then succeeds a level tract of country known by the general name of Amanda, whereof the tribes are four in number the Peucolaitae, Arsagalitae, Geretae, Asoi. Many writers, however, do not give the river Indus as the western boundary of India, but include within it four satrapies,--the Gedrosi, Arachotae, Arii, Paropamisadae, making the river Cophes its furthest limit; though others prefer to consider all these as belonging to the Arii. " (See: Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian, Trans. of the fragments of the Indika of Megasthenes collected by Dr. Schwanbeck and of the 1st part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle. With intr. , notes. Repr. , with additions, from the 'Indian antiquary', 1877, pp 149-151 See link: </ref> and locates them on river Indus mainly in the northern western frontier parts parts of modern Pakistan which region exactly constituted the ancient Kamboja. The Osii, Taxilae, Amanda, Peucolaitae, Arsagalitae, Asoi, Geretae and Aseni etc were all related clans and constituted mostly the Gandhara and Kamboja population. Amanda Proposed by M. de St. Martini. </ref>, Taxilae, Peucolaitae etc belonged to the Gandhara set-up whereas Asoi, Geretaei See: Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri, 4B, XXV. </ref>, Asii, Aurasa,Based on epic evidence, scholars state that "Hazara" and "Abhisara" had formed parts of ancient Kamboja . </ref>, and the Aseni etc belonged to the Kamboja. John Watson McCrindle Ibid. , p 151, fn, para 2. </ref> also regards the Asoi and Geretae to be respectively equivalent to the Aspasioi and the Gouraei of Arian--both being western-branch of the Assakenoi . Bucephala was the capital of Aseni which stood on Hydaspes See: Alexander the Great, Sources and Studies, p 236, Dr W. W. Tarn; Political History of Indian People, 1996, p 232, Dr H. C. Raychaudhury, Dr B. N. Mukerjee</ref>. Alexander had named this city after his horse Becephalus when it had died sometime in June of 326 BC after being fatally wounded at the Battle of Hydaspes with king Porus of Punjab. A view has been held that the clan names like Osii, Asioi, and Aseni of Indika of Megasthenes equate to Asii referred to by Strabo and Asiani as referred to in Historiae Philippicae by Trogue Pompey and further, they also equate to the Aspasioi and Assakenoi clans of upper Indus Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, Reprint, Vol I, p. 64. Also see: pp. 51-54, 87, 95; Vol-2, P 2, James Tod; The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia, 1885, p 196, Edward Balfour; The racial history of India, 1944, p 814-15, Chandra Chakraberty - Ethnology; Literary History of Ancient India in Relation to Its Racial and Linguistic Affiliations, 1953, pp 148, 152, Chandra Chakraberty - Sanskrit literature. </ref> referred to as Aśvayana and Aśvakayana in Panini's Ashtadhyayi.
- Els assacans, foren una tribu del nord-est de Pèrsia, sotmesa per Alexandre el Gran el 327 aC junt amb els aspasis. Vivien prop del riu Indus i a la vall de Panjkore. Les seves ciutats principals foren Massaca (o Mazaga), Peucela, Ora (una fortalesa), Bezira, Aornos, Orobatis, Embolima i Dyrta. En temps d'Alexandre els governada un príncep que els grecs van anomenar "príncep Assacanos" que tenia un exercit de 30.000 infants, 20.000 cavallers i 30 elefants. El seu nom podria haver perdurat en el nom dels actuals Afganesos.
|
![[RDF Data]](/statics/sw-cube.png)
